哥伯尼的《天體運行論》是歷史上最重要的科學經典著作之一。它提出離經叛道、既違反權威學說又與人們經驗相逆的日心地動說，打破千年迷思。它帶來的思想革命，不但奠下現代科學的典範，更標誌著理性主義的抬頭。不過，這本改變了世界的書，卻幾乎沒有面世、極少人讀過、而且還有很多錯誤。五百年後的今天仍有閱讀它的價值嗎？現代人還能夠從這些科學經典吸取甚麼養份？講者將與大家分享他對這些問題的思索。

書店與媒體中關於老子《道德經》的各種解說光怪陸離，令人目不暇接。如何面對這種現象？我們將以老子中的主要概念，如自然為例，討論比較穩妥和可信的閱讀方式，澄清和梳理現代人閱讀古代經典的各種態度，方法和目的。 現代人閱讀古典的目的和方法可以大致分為歷史的、學術的、客觀的追求和現代的、自我的、實踐的追求。但是，老子的時代沒有股票市場，沒有金融海嘯，沒有愛因斯坦，沒有量子力學，現代人是否可以用老子的思想來回應現代社會的問題？是否可以用現代理論來解釋老子思想？為什麼可以或不可以？回答這些問題不能簡單地訴之於自信或信仰，而需要認真的公開的思考和探索。

With more half the world’s population now living in a city, this lecture returns to one of the ideological sources of our current urban vision:  French writers’ visions of Paris, from the second half of the 19th century to the turning point of the 20th century. Following the footsteps of the poet Charles Baudelaire, bewildered voyeur of street life, and novelists Victor Hugo, Balzac and Zola, we will try to better apprehend how these Parisian writers perceived the city and what it meant for them to be city-dwellers. Fin de siècle Paris, riven by unprecedented industrial and political revolutions, was becoming a great metropolis of the modern world. This new urban environment, full of contrasts and contradictions, would radically challenge and transform these writers’ understanding of themselves, others and the world – and require new stylistic forms to represent it. To what extent are we still living our city through the lens of this European legacy? Can current urban studies shed new light on the literature of those days – literature which has been a stepping stone not only in redefining the city and the power of art, but in inventing modernity itself? Selected book: Richard Sennett, The Conscience of the Eye, the design and social life in the cities. New York & London: W.W. Norton and Company, 1992

The Royal Society received its royal patronage in 1662; previously it was a “Philosophical Society”” located at Wadham College, Oxford, led by the Warden of the College John Wilkins. The aim of the Royal Society was to promote “experimental knowledge” as an alternative to the teaching of Aristotelian scholasticism prevalent in the Universities. Through its commitment to Francis Bacon’s principles for the “advancement of knowledge” and an active programme of experiments, the Royal Society played a key role in shaping the concept of modern science. This talk will discuss both the emergence of the “scientific culture” as an aspect of the English empiricist intellectual tradition, as well as a range of experiments, publications, and architectural designs by the members of the Royal Society which demonstrated the importance of the credibility of the “scientific fact” – one of the hallmarks of modern knowledge.

自1789年革命爆發至1852年拿破崙三世稱帝的短短六十三年內，法國政局表面上翻天覆地，但實際卻在顛簸中循環：從推翻絕對君主政體，建立君主立憲制，到成立民主共和國，是革命推倒舊制度（Ancient Regime）的高峰；但隨之而來的是獨裁政府、大帝國、君主復辟；然後雖然經歷兩次革命、再建共和，最後卻由一個平庸的人，在公民投票認可下重新稱帝。這是歷史的偶然？法國的宿命？還是舊制度本身同時孕育了革命和中央集權的種子？在年青時鑽研美國民主制度的法國政治思想家托克維爾（Tocqueville），在生命最後幾年反覆思考法國革命爆發的原因與演變，寫成《舊制度與法國革命》，試圖在快速流轉的表象下，重構出社會政治結構的轉變，如何成為推動歷史發展的深層動力。

二次大戰後共產主義政權在蘇聯的支配下控制東歐各國，但追求自由和民族解放的聲音此起彼落。共產政權也非一成不變，在改革中謀求穩定。波蘭、匈牙利、捷克的知識分子從一次又一次的危機、鎮壓、正常化的惡性循環中，對共產主義政權進行深度批判，從建制內到建制外尋求各種改革途徑。除了香港人較認識的哈維爾（Vaclav Havel）「無權者的權力」的主張外，其他著名的思想家包括波蘭的高域高夫斯基（Leszek Kolakowski）和米可力（Adam Michnik），和匈牙利的哥華德（George Konrad）。講者透過檢視這些異見分子的心路歷程和活動，了解他們的思想、信念及影響力。 參考書目： (1) Adam Michnik, Letters from Prison and Other Essays, 1985. (2) Vaclav Havel, Open Letters. Selected Prose 1965-1990, 1991